the dutch design association (BNO) has published a report entitled design effectiveness made together with the netherlands ministry of economic affairs, most important conclusions worth a quick mention: products (and organisations) that have received a lot of attention to design (experience and functional) perform on average 20% better than those that don’t, not a fact that would surprise most designers i know or those clients that understand the importance of design, those clients that yet don’t are probably not very likely to change their attitude towards design based on this figure, i would guess…
the second noteworthy fact is that products (or services) where designers have been given a relatively large amount of freedom during the design process, tend to be much more effective and perform better than those where the client keeps a tight rein on development, again not a real surprise to me and my colleagues… clients please read this report, keeping complete overall control doesn’t lead to a better result… honest
it’s time that somebody wrote a paper on the intangible effects and benefit of good design not just the financial one… i mean, just look where accruing more money has got the world in the last few years
the english version can be downloaded here
